counting colors
by le-puraverita
Summary: Life is like a collection of paints, some colors manage to blend together perfectly while others don't mix at all. Sasuke/Sakura/Ino, InoSaku, SasuSaku, and faint SasuIno.
1. white

A/N: Based off an old idea I had once.

* * *

><p><strong>chapter one<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Her parents' laughter rang throughout the house. "Is that so?" asked the father, "If I'm red, what color is Mother?"<em>

_Sakura pondered for awhile before answering with bright eyes, "Mommy is white!'_

_All three of them laughed together. Sakura sat herself into her mother's lap, her mother smiled down at her and replied, "And why is that?"_

"_Because," Sakura said, playing with her skirt, "red and white make pink. And my name is Sakura, and cherry blossoms are pink!"_

"_Why don't you go and draw us some cherry blossoms then, Sakura?" said her father._

"_Okay!" she answered. She dragged her parents to her room, where they watched and praised her as she dabbed various shades of pink onto paper._


	2. yellow

**chapter two**

* * *

><p>Art was always a hobby of Sakura's. She was able to fully express herself and found solace in it. Things like mathematics or history couldn't quell her anger or depression. Only art could.<p>

On this particular day, she was continuing a piece she'd been working on for nearly a week now. It was a mediocre painting of a single cherry blossom tree sitting at the edge of a bank. She sighed, "I guess this will just have to do for now."

She took off her painting and let down her hair. After cleaning up the brushes and putting away the tubes of paint, she threw herself onto her bed. Making art could really be tiring sometimes.

A ring emitted from her phone. She picked it up to see a text from Ino:

**exited 4 skool,, sakura?**

Oh right. School. She had completely forgotten about that.

Now that she was fourteen, she would be starting her first year of highschool. She wasn't looking too forward to it. Her reputation wasn't the prettiest. She'd been deemed 'nerd' (or the like) every single year of school, and it didn't do any help to her low self-esteem. Hopefully, she could forget all about middle school and start anew as a freshman. After all, she had _Ino_ (of all people) as a friend, surely, she would be getting some good to her name.

With a few swipes of the finger, she texted back, **What? No way, I'm not gonna be able to deal with new classes and people.**

**yea? but sasukes guna b there! Thats sumthin, rite? **Came the reply.

Sakura sighed, she didn't even know who this Sasuke guy was!

**I don't even know who this Sasuke guy is!**

**trust me on dis 1, hes 1 fine mofo n super kool**

She slapped her forehead. Whatever, Ino.


	3. slate blue

**chapter three**

* * *

><p>Sakura stared back at the girl in the mirror. She took in a deep breath before chanting to herself, "You are a beautiful and confident young lady."<p>

"Sakura!" she heard her mother call her, "Hurry up! You don't want to be late for your first day of highschool, do you?"

_Yes I do,_ Sakura thought to herself miserably. She tugged on the scarf* of her school uniform and straightened her pleated skirt before heading downstairs. She found her mother preparing two breakfast plates.

Sakura cocked an eyebrow, "Only two? Where's dad?"

"Sorry, sweetie, he had an early meeting he had to attend to. But, I'll have you know that he was devastated he wasn't able to see you off today," replied her mother. The atmosphere dramatically dropped; Sakura's mood was at an all time low. She couldn't describe how she was feeling; it felt like some sad shade of blue. Like a dull slate blue.

"Oh," was all she could manage to say.

"Why don't you sit yourself down, honey?" her mother told her sweetly. She slid a plateful of waffles decorated with fruit over to Sakura, "I made your favorite, strawberry waffles. Here's some whipped cream, if you'd like."

Sakura smiled at her mother weakly, "Thanks, mom."

"Not a problem, sweetie."

Upon reaching school, Sakura felt massively withdrawn. She definitely did not belong here. She could spot all the cliques distancing themselves from each other—the ganguro* girls with their bleached hair and panda makeup, the gangster kids with their shirts all hanging loose, the gyarus* and preps talking about the latest fashion trends—she couldn't take it. In her tucked in polo shirt, knee-length pleated skirt, and well-fitted stockings, she felt as if she was a teacher. Well, aside from her pink hair. But who didn't have pink hair nowadays?

She clutched onto her bookbag for life, she was feeling a panic attack coming on. And she was not going to—

"Sakura!"

She whipped around to see Ino fledging towards her at full-speed. Ino tackled her into a hug before settling down. The two sat down at an empty table to talk.

"Oh my goodness! I haven't seen you since primary school!" the blonde said ecstatically, she reached out and stroked Sakura's locks, "Wow, your hair has really grown~ And it looks like showing your forehead is really goin' good for you!"

Sakura nodded and gave a shy smile, "Yeah, I guess. Your hair grew out really long, too. It's all the way down to your waist…"

Ino laughed and leaned in closer, "Don't tell anyone, but I heard Sasuke likes girls with long hair, so… haha~"

Sakura only smiled back. She didn't really get the deal with this Sasuke kid, hell, she didn't even know him. But if Ino was freaking out about him, he was probably something special.

"Ah, so!" Ino whipped out a small slip of paper from her backpack and slid it to Sakura, "Do you have any classes with me?"

Sakura curiously picked up the sheet and looked at it. "Oh right, I forgot to print my schedule earlier…"

"Hahaha!" Ino burst into a fit of giggles, "That is _so_ like you, Sakura! Let's go to the office and get it together."

She grabbed Sakura's wrist and dragged her to the office. There, the receptionist printed out Sakura's classes for her. The two girls went on to compare schedules.

**Student: HARUNO, SAKURA**

**Current term: Trimester 1**

**P1, BIOLOGY, HIMURA K (RM515)  
><strong>

**P2, TRIGONOMETRY, YUHI K (RM230)  
><strong>

**P3, WORLD HISTORY, SARUTOBI A (RM402)  
><strong>

**P4, LITERATURE, HATAKE K (RM322)  
><strong>

**P5, ART, NARA Y (RM500)  
><strong>

**( LUNCH B)**

**P6, ENGLISH, UMINO I (RM324)  
><strong>

**P7, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, MAITO G (GYM)**

"Whoa! It looks like we're gonna be seeing each other a lot more!" Ino said with wide eyes, "Biology, history, literature, English, and gym… we even have the same lunch period! Wow, it's like a miracle! Kind of…"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, thank goodness. I guess I won't have to work in the corner by myself anymore."

"Oh, you poor thing," Ino said pinching her friend's cheek, "don't you worry about a thing, this year's gonna be a blast!"

Sakura slapped Ino's hand away and laughed, "Right."

* * *

><p>*Footnotes:<p>

,,Honestly, I don't know what they're called, but you guys know what I'm talking about, right? It's one of those sailor scarves that students drape over their shoulders. If anyone knows what that's called… it'd be a help to me. LOL

,,Ganguro is an old fashion trend where you tan yourself to a darker shade, bleach your hair and dye it bright colors (pink, blue, blonde, etc.) and put on panda makeup. The clothes that ganguro girls usually wear should contrast greatly from a 'normal' citizen.

,,Gyaru is also a fashion trend in Japan. It's not as wild as ganguro, and basically, the key idea is to make yourself appear doll-like while following current and modern fashion trends.


	4. dark purple

**chapter four**

* * *

><p>Sakura found herself standing idly to the side while Ino was chatting up with a few of her older acquaintances. She took this as an opportunity to glance around the room, look out for anybody who might be a potential buddy if Ino were to ever not show up in school. She spotted a few friendly faces, but they were only approachable at best. Sakura started to feel uncomfortable, most of the people in this class were out of her league—people she wouldn't really talk to. They emitted some sort of an odd aura, much like the colors red and purple. She felt uneasy.<p>

"Sakura!" Ino's voice snapped Sakura out her daze. Her friend pointed to a table in the farthest left of the second row. "Let's sit over there!"

"Okay," replied Sakura as she obediently followed after Ino.

Ino turned to her, "This is gonna be so fun!"

Fun was the last thing on Sakura's mind. After seeing how she would never fit in with her classmates, how on earth could she have fun?

The teacher passed by their table, dropping two small spiral notebooks on the desk, "Okay, kids, these will be your planners for the year. I expect them to be filled out every day for every period, as I will be doing planner checks every Friday. Now, if everyone would please open up to the title page and write in your names."

Sakura did as told, scribing in her name as delicately and neatly as she could afford. She looked over to Ino and saw her friend writing her name in big bubbly letters.

"You two!" The teacher slapped his palm on the desk of two loud boys. He flipped open up the planner for both of them, "Stop slacking and write down your names. You guys do not know how much I have to stress about this—"

The teacher returned to his desk and put on a smile for the class, "Ahem, with those matters aside, I'd like to welcome all of you to biology class. I'm Mr. Himura. I hope we all have fun this year."

Biology wasn't too bad of a class now that she thought about it. At least Mr. Himura was a laid-back, cheery type of guy. She was constantly reminded of a pale pink color whenever she thought about that class. Sakura stuffed her binder and planner into her bookbag and took a look at the whereabouts of her next class. _Trigonometry with Ms. Kurenai, room 230… that's two buildings from here…_

"Hey, Sakura!" Sakura looked up to see Ino waving from the doorway, "I'll see you in History later!"

"Yeah," answered Sakura weakly, "see you then."

Ino beamed a smile at her before skipping off. Sakura ventured out into the hallway, suddenly finding herself in a sea of 1200 students. She quietly slipped her way into the 200 building, murmuring quick "pardon me's" and "excuse me's" here and there. It took her awhile to find the right classroom, and by the time she was past the door she had only a second to spare.

The teacher turned to look at her and smiled, "I was just taking a quick roll call. You must be Miss Haruno, then? I've heard a lot about you from your former teachers. Why don't you take a seat somewhere?"

Sakura could only nod shyly. The teacher was so incredibly beautiful, it intimidated her. She decided to take a seat by the window, and oddly enough, the whole table there was empty. She realized that this was the smallest class she had ever been in. A great sum of 12 people opposed to the 35 she was used to seeing in previous years.

While the teacher was taking attendance (again), Sakura scanned the room. No familiar faces at all. Most of the students seemed pretty snobby and arrogant, and none of them were too good-looking either. Well, with one exception. She saw him surrounded by female classmates—all of whom were desperately trying to get his attention. And Sakura could see why. This kid was gorgeous! He had ebony eyes and a chiseled nose; thin lips and sharp eyebrows. His hair was sleek and jet-black, contrasting greatly with his milky complexion. He was godly and absolutely beautiful.

Sakura caught herself staring for too long and almost missed her name.

"Haruno Sakura? Haruno Sakura?"

"Oh! Um, yes, present."

She looked down at her desk, not really sure where else to look. She heard the teacher call out a few more names before finishing, "And last but not least… Uchiha Sasuke?"

_Uchiha Sasu—?_

"Present."

His answer was dispassionate and dull. Although it was normal for everyone to answer so bluntly during roll call, there was something about him that seemed exceptionally cold. As handsome as he looked, Sakura felt a dark purple aura emitting from him.

It was certainly nerve-wrecking.


End file.
